you are watching cnn's special coverage of hurricane sandy. keep in mind, eight days from the presidential election, one-fifth, one-fifth of the united states is bracing for this gargantuan storm hitting here, all up and down. it will be hitting all up and down the east coast. take a look here as we have pictures all up and down the east coast. we'll be looking with you. first of all, obviously, you're looking at this. this is from space. this is sandy there swirling. these are images thanks to nasa. a little earlier in the day where you can see it is this gigantic storm, been as basically the swath between memphis and los angeles if you were going to try to map that. want to move on, though, and tell you as we have these live pictures here, atlantic city, these are tape pictures, but you can see, look at the water here. some cars moving. atlantic city. we've been looking into atlantic counties, specifically, something like five feet of water on some of these roads and, folks, it will get worse.

right now we know of at least 116,000 homes without power. those numbers will obviously change. but i just want to hit home this point, that everything about sandy is huge. you see the system. this is on your screen here. the wind field, this is something we'll talk to chad about, the wind field roughly 900 miles wide, 60 million people all the way from north carolina to maine could be affected by this hurricane. about 61,000 national guard troops have been deployed. the president making the point that a lot of the resources, as best as they can, have been prepositioned in anticipation of this storm. $87 billion worth of homes reportedly at risk. and in manhattan, the new york stock exchange closed today and we know it will be closed tomorrow. also shut down, amtrak, subways in new york, washington, d.c., philadelphia, and in boston. and at the top of the hour here

we can tell you now that new york's holland tunnel and the brooklyn battery bridge are shutting down, closing. no traffic there. not only is sandy big, sandy is very slow. and that's part of the problem. it could stick around, possibly 48 hours, and keep people in the dark for as long as ten days. the bottom line here is as you look at these pictures with me here, government leaders, they say this is not hype, folks. this is real. sandy has already killed 67 people, and that's outside of the united states. >> there will undoubtedly be some deaths that are caused by the intensity of this storm, by the floods, by the tidal surge, and by the waves. >> one important note i want to bring you here, a live briefing, we'll be getting the live briefing from fema, the federal emergency management agency. that should be happening in about half an hour so we'll be watching for that. also, we heard from specifically the president just a little

earlier today from the briefing room. here's part of what he said. >> if public's not following instructions, that makes it more dangerous for people, and it means that we could have fatalities that could have been avoided. >> that was the president earlier today. we have correspondents covering this hurricane up and down the northeast coast here all the way from north carolina upward. but i want to go straight to chad myers. chad, walk on in and let's talk, as we've now gotn this update, this is breaking, the fact -- >> right there. >> it's moving faster. >> 28 miles an hour. it is now hauling the mail right toward the coast close to cape may, atlantic city, or maybe it slides just south of cape may where the ferry would run and right into wilmington, delaware weather a huge surge there. worried about wilmington, worried about philadelphia, even into baltimore as this thing moves a little faster from -- they're saying northwest. i'm seeing this a little bit west knot west not just -- not this way, more this way, which

puts washington and baltimore more in play than let's say boston, because it's just not going to go there now. this cone is nowhere near the northeast coast, although there are still waves 24 feet high pounding parts of maine. you is said how big it is. that's the issue. there's not really -- we don't even care about the eye with this storm. >> what about in terms of pressure alone, this could be the biggest storm what north of cape hatteras ever. >> ever. this is now bigger than the long island express. north of that -- >> that was in 1938. >> now we are down to 940 millibars on the last update. that is the lowest pressure ever north of that line. and the pressure means there's a difference -- the difference between the low that's here and the high that's here will cause winds to howl. buffalo, even into michigan, ohio, indiana, and all the way down even to charlotte as it continues to spin. it's not going to be a hurricane very very much longer. it is going to be this coastal

low, a nor east they're hits land. >> don't go too far. we have so much to talk about -- the trajectory, wind, flooding, snow. so just join me here through the next two hours. do me that favor. >> sure. >> the brunt of sandy is supposed to hit, as chad was mentioning, somewhere from delmarva, where delaware, virginia, and maryland meet, to the jersey shore. and just a couple of hours ago the government of new jersey, governor chris christie scolded those who ignored any kind of mandatory evacuation orders. here he was. >> but there are some towns in the atlantic and ocean counties that are only 50% evacuated from reports that i've gotten. i read some joker in the newspaper this morning saying i've never run away -- in his fatigues saying he's never run away from one of these, he won't now. well, you might wind up under it, not running away from it. this is not a time to be a show-off. >> chris christie this afternoon. i want to go straight to new

jersey to maggie lee. she's in asbury park for us, on this mandatory evacuation list. i can see the rain, see that that wind there, maggie. tell me where you are and how bad it is from what you can tell. >> reporter: that's right, brooke. we are on the boardwalk just the shadows of the historic convention center here in asbury park. if we could swing around, this is exactly what governor christie is concerned about. we have a family out here who came to the boardwalk to check it out despite the fact there are police riding up and down, trying to tell people to get to safety. the conditions are definitely worsening from this afternoon. that is not a good position to have your family in right there. we've got horizontal rain, hail coming. the only thing i will say that in terms of tide that a high tide this morning, most of the beach covered. if we could swing around out here, we are starting to see that come back up. you can just see a little bit of the beach. earlier last hour -- >> maggie, you okay?

>> reporter: they lost us. >> we've got you, maggie. keep going. we see you. or perhaps she lost us. but, again, asbury park, new jersey, maggie just holler if you can hear me. if not, we'll just have to go back to her. they're getting reports of parts of that historic boardwalk collapsing. let's move on. where shall we go? okay. let me show you an image from chesapeake bay. this is kent island, maryland, just across the bay from annapolis. and we'll look at the video in just a second. here it is. look at these waves. this came off our feed just about an hour ago, waves crashing into chesapeake. this is kent island, maryland, hours before landfall. we showed you the president within just this past hour. the president declared a state of emergency in the state of delaware. so up and down delaware's coast,

flooding has started in earnest this morning. and cnn's brian todd is there. brian? >> reporter: here in lieu wis beach, delaware, where the storm surge from sandy is pretty heavy as you can see. the beach is several hundred yards that way, but the surge is taking the water toward the beach right now, i guess just because of the way the winds are blowing in the storm, see just how deep it's getting. almost to my knees here. and the wind is pretty heavy. the flooding goes on down this street several hundred yards for as far as you can see on the beaches near here. we've been at rehoboth beach and up around this area south of here. they're worried about beach erosion. we're getting some of it now. they had beach replenishment this year where they expanded the beach 200 to 300 feet to the ocean. they say right now that is savinging the coastal buildings and businesses right along the boardwalk. if that replenishment had not

taken place, those buildings might be destroyed already. but you can see the surge from sandy already starting to cause some pretty heavy flooding over here. our photojournalist, chris turner, panning to my right, to your left. you can see that street completely flooded over there. some businesses already being threatened. residences being threatened. the governor's ordered a mandatory evacuation for everyone about three-quarters of a mile from the beach inland. the city manager for rehoboth told me a short time ago he believes about 90% of the people got out. brian todd, cnn, lewis beach, delaware. as we continue to coffer this breaking story, in anticipation this evening of landfall, hurricane sandy, we're going to talk about potential record-breaking storm surge, specifically the high tide surge. that's next. the wheels of progress haven't been very active lately.

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struggle to give her reports from ocean city, maryland. let's go to sandra. she's live for us. it's been pouring rain. the winds are whipping. give me a condition update. >> reporter: i want to take advantage of the low tide to show you the effects of hurricane sandy already, which hasn't even reached landfall here. there's already destruction and damage and devastation left behind. you can see the erosion on the beach now. this fencing was going all along this protective sand dune where you can see all that's left now are these wooden posts all along the shoreline before this fencing like this was up around this area but now obviously these strong waves have really damaged a lot of this protective sand dune. and these dunes were protecting this water from property area.

so it's a beautiful coastal destination for a lot of tourists, and now this beach is really being weathered and obviously these waves coming over the sand dune as well as flooding a lot of that property surrounding this coastal line. that's something the residents will keep a watchful eye on in terms of the flooding as well as all the damage that's going to have to be replaced as well as replacing a lot of these sand dunes. so certainly this is just the beginning because if this keeps going like this, it's unclear how much damage and destruction hurricane sandy will cause here in ocean city alone. >> i assume behind you is some sort of hotel. is that for the most part, given the wind and everything, is everything swakt? doougs anything flying around because of the whipping wind? >> reporter: good question. even on this big, nice hotel here, this waterfront property has endured some damage already.

we saw part of the metal roofing break-away from the foundation, really, and they had to have workers cut off that metal so it wouldn't fly around. and they're really bracing for the storm here. last night, i can show you, as we pan over here, eddie rose, the photographer working with me, you can see that light bulb, that was blown out, the glass globe around it just blew off in the wind and shattered right as i was doing a live shot up there. so certainly feeling the effects of a lot of the wind here. the rain is just relentless, nonstop coming down here. and again, we're still several hours away from hurricane sandy actually reaching this area. >> sandra endo, we appreciate you and your crew. stay safe. heads up for the flying debris. it will get worse before it gets better. this hurricane's tidal surge could come in at 12 feet. 12 feet. tonight, full moon, the high tide, throw that in, and that

makes sandy's landfall a potential worst-case scenario. jeff masters is a hurricane specialist with weather underground dotcom. this is his blog. you flew with the noaa hurricane hunters for four years. you are in ann arbor, michigan weather me. i want to point out chad myers, our meteorologist, is standing along with me. i asked him to join me in this interview. just in terms of the storm surge from what i'm reading, particularly in pars of new york, as mayor bloomberg is talking about 12 feet, that is record breaking. correct? >> the highest storm surge we've ever seen in new york city occurred in 1960 with hurricane donna. the surge reached about 11.5 feet above mean low water. the forecast for this storm is for it to reach up to a foot and a half higher than that. >> so when we talk 12-foot storm surge, what does that mean? my concern, i'm thinking about the people who hopefully have evacuated, heated the orders, gotten out of the lower lying

areas. if not, you've been covering, you know hurricanes inside and out, sir, what's your advice to to these folks? >> the surge is the number-one killer in hurricanes and you should be prepared for the water to come quickly. it's not a wall of water but it's a dome of water and nooufs very quickly. you could have about a 10 or 20-mile-an-hour current when that water starts flooding into your home. >> chad, jump in. >> jeff, chad myers. i'm very concerned about the area of the east river as the water comes in. big surge going into long island and surm trying to go up from new york harbor colliding somewhere near roosevelt island. any thoughts about what that will do, where those two water masses might collide? >> yeah. it's going to pile up waters very high. if we get a lot of rain over the next few hours, that's going to inhibit the drainage and keep things piled up even higher. we've already got a 4 1/2-foot storm surge in new york harbor right now, a half a foot higher than hurricane irene.

when the high tide starts to flood in late this afternoon, early this evening, we'll see record-breaking surge hikes. >> does that mean water goes in the subway? >> probably. >> probably. >> i don't know what kind of sandbagging efforts that they're going to be having in place. i mean, since irene, i know they've taken some steps to see if they can get some sort of better protection from subway entrances, but the official forecast is calling for a 10 hfgs to 12-foot storm tide and it only needs to be 10.5 feet to flood the subway. >> jeff, we've seen the pictures. we keep hearing the adjectives colossal, gigantic, to describe it. almost in november, cold in the north. how does a storm like this size form? >> well, it started in the caribbean, which it's always warm enough year around to make hurricanes form. and once it got north of the caribbean it found itself right over the gulf stream, at least

over the past day or so, and it was in a very unique spot, right over an axis of the warm gulf stream waters that right now are about 5 to 9 degrees fahrenheit warmer than average. the ocean temperatures off the atlantic coast are about 2 to 3 degrees fahrenheit warmer than average right now, very unusually warm for this time of year. >> jeff, a couple more things. talking about -- and i know we focus on new york city a lot. but let's move down the coast a little bit into wilmington, into philadelphia, atlantic city, because the surge there will be very close to the center, we'll call it an eye, whatever, as the center makes landfall later on this afternoon or early evening. what are your thoughts about wilmington, philadelphia, and the surge going up through that tidal basin? >> the highest surges we're going to see are going to be in the bay just off of staten island and then on the opposing coast of new jersey. certainly also very high surge levels in extreme northern new jersey, atlantic city, going up towards philadelphia.

in fact, in this morning's high tide along the coast of new jersey, they already recorded the highest surges on record going back over 100 years at some locations. and that was, you know, well before the storm hit, more than 12 hours. so this evening's high tide cycle is going to cause an immense amount of damage, billions of dollars. >> jeff master, we appreciate your expertise. thank you for talking to us. just looking over at you, quickly, chad, when i see you say wow, that makes me nervous. >> you know, there's no word for it. it's historic. it's never happened. that idea. what we talked about earlier with this pressure never being this low north of cape hatteras or any storm on current record, now, we don't know what happened in 1710, but on current record where we have barometric pressures, this storm is a nor'easter so to speak that came onshore. this is a perfect storm like the one in 1991 but that one never made landfall. it stayed in the ocean. this is coming on land now, so we're not only worried about the

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i' been here for a long time and this storm is scaring me a little bit. >> water, toilet paper, paper plates, paper cups, flashlights. >> we are nervous. we've floated up with water, batteries, masking tape, duct tape. >> preparation, whatever we can do to minimize any damage to homes and the city in general. >> nervous. i'm very nervous. but i think i'm in gad hands here. i think i'm safe. >> hurricane sandy stopping travels in their tracks. amtrak canceling service across the eastern seaboard. thousands of flights canceled ahead of the hurricane. look at the pictures. you saw air france. this is france where sandy is

stranding travelers trying to fly to the u.s. east coast. and this is atlanta's busy hartsfield international jackson airport. same story. travelers with flights to the northeast and mid-atlantic absolutely stranded. you is see the boards there. canceled, canceled, canceled. alison kosik, let me bring you in. you're in new york for us. i want to share more pictures. grand central station, normal the hustle and the bustle there. look at that. empty. >> yep. desolate. >> subway platforms empty. no one in sight. i have never seen new york look like this. are have you? >> neither have i. i have not either. i came into the city in the middle of the night last night because i was in jersey covering the hurricane for cnn. coming back, you know, you usually see, even in the middle of the night, lights are on, people are around. didn't see that. like a ghost town. and this is because you're seeing trains being shut down. talked about amtrak suspending service in the northeast corridor. add that to the public transportation suspensions here

in new york. you know, all of this really cripples the northeast region. we rely on our trains and buses. guess what, today more than 12 million commuters can't rely on that. this is from washington, d.c., all the way up to boston. boston just shut down, i don't know, what, 20 minutes ago, shut down its public transportation. in new york city here, we've got the biggest transportation system in the country. you have to realize some of the trains run above ground, so they can't keep going forward with the high winds happening. others are below ground and then you've got the possibility of flooding. then some trains are at street level and you worry about downed trees that could get on the tracks. that's why you're seeing these shutdowns, the mt action being proactive, getting trains and buses into safer areas. they say this will help things get back up much faster once the storm passes. but it's going to take a while. they'll have to inspect all the tracks first. >> we were talking to jeff, who used to fly in the hurricanes, and his word was probably as far as some of those subways flooding with some of the result

of this hurricane. from trains, let's talk flights. we have a picture. let's pull it up. here it is. this is the flight tracker. you see all the little planes across the country, where they're going, if they're still a go. i know airports, are they closed? how many people are stranded? obviously, this is the kind of thing that affects folks nationwide. >> yeah. closures, cancellations are happening left and right. almost 9,000 flights were canceled since yesterday. that includes 2,500 flights canceled tomorrow. and guess what, number of flight cancellations, that's likely to grow. new york, three major airports, closed. philadelphia, same story. most flights canceled out of washington, d.c., as well. for the airlines, this is tough because they take a huge hit. analysts say every day that these flights are down. it costs carriers $10 million industry wide. the good news for many travelers, brooke, is is most of these carriers, they are allowing you to make free changes. usually there's a penalty. analysts say flights should,

should be back to normal by the end of the weekend. we can only hope. >> no one really knows for sure, do they. alison kosik for me in new york. thank you. let's talk new jersey now. new jersey governor chris christie reporting this afternoon here that more than 2,200 people in new jersey spent the nigh in state and local shelters. and you can see why. we're going to show you this map here. this is the map of the jersey shore. you see all the red all on the right side of your screen there, that red represents areas under mandatory evacuations. on the phone with me now, todd james from the red cross. he is in atlantic city, new jersey, where we learned just this afternoon there was a mandatory curfew in place just about 3 1/2 hours from now. so 6:00 p.m. eastern through 6:00 in the morning. and todd, that's happening pretty soon. tell me where you're calling me from and the conditions on the roads right now where you are. >> reporter: i'm currently at the sheraton hotel right across from the convention center,

where they staged the command the emergency response operation here. the conditions are very poor. it is extremely nasty here. high winds, rain, a lot of the roads around the hotel here are already flooded. talking with some of the other people that are staying here, a lot of them are emergency personnel, several rescues they've had to do in the community. most of the roads, especially closer to the beach, are already well flooded. >> hearing the president earlier today in that briefing, you know, his point was, look, if you're in these mandatory evac a areas, he said listen to the officials, don't delay, done pause, just evacuate. how many people are you seeing in that red cross shelter in atlantic city and how many do you anticipate? >> reporter: well, we actually did not open one here in atlantic city because we didn't want to be in the evacuation area. several shelters were open a little further inland, along the

side. we had nine states with shelters open, over 3,200 people. i know we had several thousand people that were evacuated yesterday from here in atlantic city. they saved a lot of transportation across the street from us so we had a chance to meet some of the folks as they were getting on the buses. they just grabbed what they had and followed the order to get out and hoping they'll be able to come to their homes in a few days. >> todd, in talking to those folks who were heeding those mandatory evacuation, getting out of town, how did they seem? how nervous did they seem? >> reporter: i wouldn't say extremely nervous. they've been through this, many of them, before with other storms in the past. i think they really did understand how dangerous sandy a storm is, that this is going to be a record setter in many ways. more man anything else, as understandable as it is, very anxious about leaving their homes and hoping that when it's all said and done and they're

able to come home, they'll find their homes and all their belongings in good shape. >> we appreciate you. i've covered many a disaster and it's the red cross that truly rides us out and is truly tremendous. we applaud you. you have a long couple days ahead of you, todd james, in new jersey and atlantic city. thank you, sir. we do now have some new information on this coast guard rescue. i want to bring in george howell, who has now just spoken with survivors. as we're looking at these picture, this camera appears to be atop a helicopter. george, tell me what we're looking at? tell me the story. after the break.

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one story we've been watching through the day is the ship that was off the coast of north carolina. it is called the "hms bounty." there were 16 people on board. 13 as it started going down, because of all the storm, 13 hopped into lifeboats.

three washed overboard. two are still missing. so that's just a little bit of the background. i want to bring in george howell. he is live in elizabeth city, north carolina weather sort of an update. we're looking at some of the coast guard pictures of this rescue, george. tell me what happened. >> reporter: yes, brooke. we know that they were able to rescue 14 people off that boat, great news when you consider what they were doling with out there. when you look at the video, it's like looking for a need until a haystack out the there. there were two lifeboats out there, people on those. then one person who was just floating out in the ocean. there were two helicopter crews that went out there. learned that the "bounty" contacted the coast guard around 6:30 yesterday with distress calls saying their ship was taking on too much water, couldn't pump it all out. that's enough. they expected they would have to

abandon ship at 8:00 a.m. this morning, but ended up abandoning ship 4:00 a.m. so much earlier than they thought they'd have to. that's when the coast guard came in. they were dealing with waves that could have brought these helicopters down. they had to hover very low to the ocean just to pluck these people up and out. brooke, we're turning around an interview right now with a rescue swimmer, and when you hear what he had to deal with, he would go down, swim out there, get people, and bring them to the lines and hoist them back up. we would ask him, you know, what you did, do you consider yourself a hero. this is a guy who's very humble. he says, you know, this is what i'm trained to do. and he's honored to have saved lives. and there's still a rescue operation right now, brooke. there are still two people missing. the coast guard has helicopters out right now looking for these two people. we tried to talk to a few survivors, but the coast guard

is not letting us do it at this point till they determine where those two people are or if they're able to recover the two people. they don't want any information about identities out, something if the department of defense rules they're going to stand by so, they're not letting us talk to any of the survivors at this point. >> okay. i'm just looking at this video. this is obviously compelling stuff. turning my head here to sort of understand how far down they would have been, you know, rescuing some of these i guess swimmers, some of them off of this boat. so still two missing. hopefully we'll have that interview shortly. >> reporter: absolutely. we're working on it right now. one thing that i want to point out, all the people who were on that boat, they all had on survival suits. they all had on what you see there, those orange jump suits. and they had strobes with them. so when these rescuers came in,

that's what they were looking for, looking for the strobes, looking for these orange jump suits, but dealing with rough winds, rough waves, it was a difficult situation, brooke. but again -- >> incredible. incredible. george howell, thank you so much for jumping on the phone. we'll look for the sound from that coast guard rescue swimmer as soon as we can get that. in the meantime, we are covering this really up and down here, this hurricane sandy. coming up, i'll talk to the mayor of ocean city, maryland. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 when i'm trading, i'm so into it, tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 hours can go by before i realize tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 that i haven't even looked away from my screen. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 that kind of focus... tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 that's what i have when i trade. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and the streetsmart edge trading platform from charles schwab... tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 ...helps me keep an eye on what's really important to me. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 it's packed with tools that help me work my strategies, tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 spot patterns and find opportunities more easily. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 then, when i'm ready... act decisively. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 i can even access it from the cloud and trade on any computer.

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want to turn your attention to coastal maryland, ocean city. this is a huge, huge tourist town. on the phone with me now is the mayor of ocean city, mayor rick meehan. tell me -- i know you are inside this emergency operations center where i'm sure people are gearing up for a long couple of days. tell me what is your concern, number one, right now.

>> our biggest concern for from the beginning was the storm surge. wy knew we were going to experience extremely high tides on the bay side as well as storm surge on the ocean front. so that's been our primary concern. and the storm surge we've gotten is exactly what was projected, probably the highest storm surge we had in ocean city since hurricane gloria in 1985. and we are experiencing flooding in our downtown area, which would be south of our 17th street, and also some beach erosion along the ocean. >> were you in ocean city in '85? do you remember that? >> i was in ocean city in '85. so i do remember that. and similar in many ways, it's a slow-moving storm. at least the speed has picked up. that's gooder us. the longer it sits off the coast and in the atlantic and more tide cycles that affects us, the worse it is. similar to gloria. but the impacts have been just as projected. we do have real high tides.

we have a lot of water on the streets downtown, a lot of water in some other areas. but we've really had no injuries, we've had no calls for emergency service, so all in all we're weathering the storm pretty well. >> mayor meehan, what is your beyond the surge here in terms of people who live and many of whom have hopefully gotten out of ocean city, what is concern number one with regard to the citizens? >> well, we were very fortunate, we had a mandatory evacuation for all nonresidents and visitors, and they all complied with that. we had another mandatory evacuation in other low-lying areas. they did comply with that. we have people in town. what we want them to do is stay inside, ride the storm out. they're going to be safe. just don't do anything foolish. use common sense. we've got about 12 more hours to ride through. then it will be sunny again and life will go on. >> it will indeed. mayor rick meehan, best of luck to you there calling in from ocean city, maryland.

here we go. more breaking news right now. we are learning -- look at these pictures with me. this is a partial crane collapse in new york city. we're told the crane attached to the building right there smack dab in the middle of your screen is currently under construction, clearly, appears to be scaffolding there on multiple flo floors. that is the crane -- chad myers is getting plugged in -- i presume that's the crane on the right side of your screen that's dangling. that's confirmation. yes. that is the crane. it is dangling precariously, might i add, above west 57th, west 57th. do we know what the cross street is? okay. this is the before. is this the before on the left side? >> yes. >> i know it's dark. there you go. but if you look closely on the left side of your screen, you can see the crane upright and now it's down.

chad, is this wind? >> oh, absolutely wind. >> this is wind. >> no question. as the storm gets higher and higher or as you go higher and higher, the winds also go up. and so at a thousand feet high, i'm not sure how high that building is but it there's at least a 70 story, i would say you're looking at not only on the ground what would be a 65-mile-an-hour wind gusts but 78 or 80 up there and that crane has broken right there. >> so the crane has broken. i know you had a graphic earlier that sort of explained -- because i keep thinking of anyone living in these high-rises in manhattan. so many people do. and i'm wondering about the glass, the win toes. here we go. we have it spotlighted. the higher you go, the higher the wind. >> first thing you do if you live in a high-rise is take everything off your balcony, for you and your neighbors. bring in the chair, the potted plant and the ottoman because those will begin to fly. if they fly into another building or piece of glass, that

glass will break. one thing you have to worry about in manhattan when the winds pick up, they're not as high as they're going to get yet. another six hours before that happens, probably. a lot of the build having the tar and stone roof. put tar down and you lay little stones on top. when those stones become dislodged in the wind, those stones start to fly and they can hit other buildings across the street. and those are 80-mile-per-hour little bullets hitting that glass. as the storm gets close, you need to stay away from the windows and on the wind side of your building. >> i want to stay on this. we have to get a break in. we'll stay on this crane story. we're still hours before this storm is supposed to make landfall and we're already seeing evidence of the situation in new york deteriorating because of the winds.

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beginning to deteriorate. we mentioned before the break, we showed you these pictures. if you are in manhattan and you are on the west side right around 57th street, this is what you're going to see. you see this very tall building. the guess is 70-plus stories. just a guess. and you see this thing on the right, almost looks like a candy cane. that is a crane. if we can pull up the before and after pictures, it gives you better perspective. this is because of the wind gusts. if we have that picture, you can see what the crane is supposed to look like. because of the wind, we presume that it has now been kicked over here. we want to take you straight to the streets of new york just to get a better sense -- there's the before and the after. it's tough to see. there's dark. there's the crane above that building. the crane is now just dangling

above west 57th. ashleigh banfield is in manhattan. tell me where you are. how bad are the winds right now? >> reporter: not too bad this minute. but about five minutes ago a gust came by and nearly knocked me off my feet, brooke. i hear that story all the time. but something else to tell you about. i'm at battery park, the southern tip of manhattan where we're expecting possibly 12-foot storm surge. look at this water. about ten feet, maybe eight feet down. brooke, if all is to be expected, the worst-case scenario plays out as michael bloomberg suggested, a 12-foot storm surge might have the water right about here by 8:00 tonight at high tide. that's new jersey down there. this is the hudson river. i heard you just talking about 57th street. i want to show you something. when those winds come onshore they're expecting to be somewhere around 80 miles an hour. well, you know, buildings might

be able to withstand that. but look at this building over here. it's about 60 stories. if you go halfway up, about 30 stories, that's when the wind changes. 80 miles an hour down here becomes a 96-mile-an-hour wind up there. >> ashleigh, i have to stop you. i just saw joggers -- look to your left. do you see the joggers just bleu past you? who are these people. >> reporter: yeah. joggers, tourists. a lot of people. and i just saw some and told them to get home. the police have been patrolling. the national guard has been called out, 1,100 governor cuomo has called out. it is not a joke. yet we have a lot of people out for a stroll or a jog and some wanting to see the waves. if you go up 80 stories in manhattan and you know how many buildings are 80 stories in this city, those winds that might be 80 miles an hour down here become 106 miles an hour sustained. so new york city, one of the

most famous high cities in the world is in for some serious damage, brooke. >> ashleigh banfield, thank you. excellent point. we'll tack that will with chad, just the point of these skyscrapers, case in point, the one you're looking at, the crane that's now dangling over this. more on this story after this. and the world's only tridion safety cell which can withstand over three and a half tons. small in size. big on safety. and the candidate's speech is in pieces all over the district. the writer's desktop and the coordinator's phone are working on a joke with local color. the secure cloud just received a revised intro from the strategist's tablet. and while i make my way into the venue, the candidate will be rehearsing off of his phone. [ candidate ] and thanks to every young face i see out there. [ woman ] his phone is one of his biggest supporters. [ female announcer ] with cisco at the center... working together has never worked so well.

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breaking news talking about hurricane sandy, anticipating hurricane sandy. we'll get you back to manhattan and that partial crane collapse in just a moment. but these are pictures from scituate, massachusetts, chad myers. this is an affiliate reporter. we're going to eavesdrop and take a look at these pictures as the storm, the waters are coming in. >> you know, we can't stress how big the arms of this storm are. i just got a wind gust to around martha's vineyard, massachusetts, 81 miles per hour, and that's massachusetts. that's just incredible how -- that's hurricane force gust over 500 miles from the center of the storm. >> over 500 miles. >> you're talking about a bowling ball that's going to knock things down, knock trees,

power lines, limbs, everything down from the coast of new jersey as far knot as massachusetts and connecticut, as far south as virginia, then go inland about 400 miles before it finally stops and turns to the north and heads up into canada. >> when you talk about a wind field from what i was reading, you were saying it's as large as, what, 900,000 -- what was it? >> i have a graphic. >> here we go. >> do we have 30 seconds? >> grab it. you were saying it's twice the size of texas, the wind field. >> even the camera can go in and i'll go back to the cube. that's the wind field tropical storm force or greater. that's massachusetts. cape cod all the way to the border of south carolina. that red hot is hurricane force or greater. but that is going to move onshore. not just the coast. this goes inland. i can't tell people to prepare enough. this is bigger than you think it is. >> we saw the pictures in massachusetts. we want to take you back to the

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her we are top of the hour. i'm brooke baldwin. these are live pictures, midtown manhattan. this is slated to be tallest building in new york with residences. this is west 57th between sixth and seventh. we're going to talk about that because in looking at these pictures before and the after on the left and the right-hand side of your screens, this is evidence of the storm's rath before the storm even makes landfall. let me tell you this. this storm will be affecting some 60 million people in its path all the way from north carolina, northward to maine, $87 billion of homes reportedly at risk. and 61,000 national guard troops have been deployed. we're getting an update at the top of the hour. i want to bring in chad myers. you've been watching this.

the latest update is? >> for a long time we get 5:00, 11:00 updates and something in between. now because it's so close we get hourly updates from the hurricane sent every. it's only 85 miles from atlantic city, new jersey, where our ali velshi is right now. winds are 90 miles per hour and it's moving at 30 miles per hour, moving forward at about 28 to 30. that means it will be on shore in less than three hours. >> there he is. ali velshi, can you even hear me, ali? >> reporter: i can hear you. i can hear you. it sounds about right what chad is just said. really blowing you. it's getting pretty strong now, about as strong as we've seen it. >> chad, who is that driving along? is that emergency personnel? or ali, rather. forgive me. >> reporter: yes. that's right. that's what it was. it was a police vehicle. that's pretty much all that are

out, police and utility vehicles. i think they're trying to get an early response. we are definitely -- i was on the boardwalk, which is about three-quarters of a mile behind me. i was just there about half an hour ago. there are emergency crews out there trying to clear the boardwalk of people. there wasn't anybody out there, though. they were just making sure everything was okay. right now all you're seeing is emergency vehicles or work crews like we've got right here. >> ali, at any moment in time we'll yank this if you are at all in danger, if you start seeing anything flying your way. i can hear the whipping wind. i believe it's atlantic city where three hours from now there's this mandatory curfew. from 6:00 in the evening through 6:00 in the morning people cannot come out, as you point out, except for those emergency vehicl vehicles. what else do you see? who else have you talked to today? >> okay. i'll tell you, first of all, it really is a lot of wind here, i happen to be next to a building and we're sort of a round building so there's nothing

likely to come my way given the way the wind is blowing because we are obviously concerned about being safe. but all i'm going to get is wind right now. i'm just going to get buffeted around a little bit. we're out of the wind and debris. when i was on the boardwalk, debris was a real concern. most of the restaurants and shops have done a good job of tying things down. you could see some siding flying off buildings. in this county, there are people in shelters, 400 to 500 people we believe in shelters. if you didn't leave, you can't leave now because the most direct way mainland is over a causeway, over a bridge, and that bridge is probably flooded right now because about two hours ago it was almost flooded. you can't get out. if you're in this part of atlantic city, this is where you are. we're about to see another police vehicle. they're really working around here, making sure nobody is anywhere they are not supposed to be. but they do know they'll be taking precautions. we'll start to see them all

around making sure from 6:00 there is nobody out on the street. frankly, unless you're kind of like us where you're reporting this, there's no reason to be out here. these winds are particularly strong right now, brooke. it's only going to get stronger. we have been doing a survey around. there's not too much damage. i know there were reports of a part of the boardwalk that have been destroyed and upended. we did not see that. there are, however, piers that go out into the ocean. we couldn't get out there. it was just too rough. but that's possible some of that is blown off. everything is pretty solid around atlantic, good infrastructure. we are not seeing people roaming around. >> ali, it's chad myers. is that saul water you're standing in or just fresh water flooding from the rain? because you are still five hours from high tide. >> yeah. this is fresh water right now. we were out in the ocean about half an hour ago, obviously saltwater that also had sand in

it, obviously pelting us heavily. this is fresh water. you have a better sense of the water pattern around here where we'll start to get the water from. you can see by the wind, the fire vehicles there, police over here, new jersey state police just passed me. we're seeing a lot of law enforcement ability. i just saw an ambulance go by. they seem well prepared in atlantic city. the car and truck in between us right now. let me move over so you can actually see me. we are not seeing casual folks around. we are definitely seeing people with pickup trucks and, you know, checking out their business and things like that, but everything on the boardwalk -- i don't know if you got the video i sent in from when i was on the boardwalk. everything is shuttered. most stores have steel grates in front of them which they usually use to lock up the store. others have plywood. but everybody is hunkered down and prepared.

there are about 500 people in the shelters in atlantic city. governor christie has said in new jersey if you have pets, they've got pet-friendly shelters. wow. at this point if you didn't get out, you're not getting out. >> ali velshi, we're going to stay with you. this is pretty unbelievable these pictures we're getting from atlantic city. i was talking to the mayor a moment ago. he remembered a storm in 1985 as being pretty bad. i know, chad, we talk so much about battery park and some of the areas in lower manhattan that could see that historic storm surge of 12 feet. where ali is, not specifically where he is, but atlantic city could have record-breaking storm surge of 9 1/2 feet. >> and they'll also have a wind tunneling effect where the winds are going to go between those big casinos. they're fairly high. they're not 80 stories high but they are high enough to cause that funneling, and i believe those buildings may start to come apart when these winds get

so strong. ali, have you seen any damage to buildings yet? >> reporter: we haven't yet, but this is the strongest we've fell the wind so far. it sort of picked up in the last half an hour. this is a band obviously coming through. look at that. the wind and the water going down the street behind me. this is by far the worst of it so far. if it picks up much more like this, i think you're probably right, chad. >> careful. >> reporter: yeah. good gusts coming this way. can't see them well, but this type of wind i wouldn't be surprised to see windows blowing out at some point fairly shortly. >> ali, we mentioned this mandatory curfew. have people indicated they will be following it, those who did stay behind? >> reporter: we checked in with the police as we crossed the

bridge into here and the police escorted us most of the way. you condition be walking around here. every time we were out on the boardwalk, every few minutes we had a vehicle come by ask us what we were doing. had the big cnn jacket on. they were fine with that. they got some sense we've done this before. they do not want onlookers. i saw one guy taking a picture earlier. i don't know if he was media or just taking photographs. the waves are spectacular, banging up against the piers. quite a sight to behold. interestingly enough, the visible is good enough. i can see the pier. i can't see the ocean because there's a building in the way, but this wind and rain is really picking up. i don't know if it's getting much worse than this. we just checked. around 90 miles an hour. we're also about 70 feet above sea level. we're expecting the storm surge in atlantic city to hit 9 or

9 1/2 feet. that means we're all going to be a little taken up. obviously, at sea level, we're seven feet above ground. in a few hours we'll be under water. >> ali, we're going to give you just a break for a moment. we'll come back to you later in the hour. can you just answer his question when he was saying it feels like the winds are picking up? looks like they are. it's tough to hear him at points because of the wind. >> the wind will pick up for the next three hours, then that will be landfall, eye landfall right near you, maybe as far south as wildwood or cape may. but you are going to be right in what would be the dangerous part of the eye wall. i notice that maybe there's an area slightly calmer in front of you, if you walk toward the camera. please, we would to keep the shot on but i feel that you are in too much wind where you are right now. obviously, the truck is safe because it's not shaking. the cameraman appears to be in a safe location. i'm worried when i saw all that stuff start to fly around, bud

ti. >> reporter: i'll know to get to higher and higher ground. i've put on a few pound. i'll make sure i don't blow away. >> please don't. we'll come back to you later this hour. tremendous pictures from atlantic city, new jersey. we have much more to show you including pictures of this partial crane collapse, west 57th, midtown, crane collapse, dangling precariously. still under construction. i have questions about some of these buildings, many buildings in manhattan under construction. the glass isn't all the way around. looks like scaffolding is is there. that's after this break. morning starts in high spirits, but there's a growing pain in his lower back. as lines grow longer, his pain continues to linger. but after a long day of helping others, he gets some helpful advice. just two aleve have the strength to keep back pain away all day. today, jason chose aleve. just two pills for all day pain relief.

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at meineke i have options... like oil changes starting at $19.95. my money. my choice. my meineke. breaking news on cnn. this is 157, what would be the tallest residential building in all of manhattan. to the right of that building is a crane. it is dangling. it has collapsed. case in point of the damage this storm could wreak here. this is already just several hours before it makes landfall. on the right-hand side of your screen, these are pictures from atlantic city, new jersey. we just have been chatting with ali velshi, who was standing in an intersection in atlantic

city, where as he pointed out, chad myers pointed out, that city could be seeing record storm surge at 9.5 feet. given all of this, i want to stay with new jersey. i want to go to new york mayor cory booker, who's on the phone with me. mayor booker, we've seen these compelling pictures from atlantic city. what does newark look like right now? >> we're all going through it in new jersey. obviously in new york you get less of the eye but we have serious concerns because the storm surge is lining up with high tide, a full moon time set. so we have an intensity of water coming into our city that we anticipate getting worse and worse as the night goes on, especially around 8:00 p.m. we have areas in our city that do flood, and we're asking people to use this last hour or two before the storm surge really begins to get out, to voluntarily evacuate additional flood areas in our city, to use precaution and not endanger

rescue workers who may, indeed, have to rescue people who are trapped in bad significants or worse, i saw a lot during irene, is people try to drive and get stranded and have to be evacuated by marine rescue. go ahead. >> forgive me. it seems like other than just simply using common sense and not standing around and being an onlooker here, the other issue, and the president pointed this out in the briefing, they want people off the streets. once this hits in the aftermath, these emergency personnel folks, they need to get out there and start rescuing people. if folks are out and about on the streets, that is bad news. i know you're concerned number one with citizens. >> the biggest risk right now is bad choices being made by individuals, lack of common sense being used, and people not seeing the severity of what's going on and not being proactive in their thinking. the time to act to prevent a crisis from happening is before

the storm happens. and after, that you should hunker down and stay put. but clearly, clearly you want people staying off of roads, staying out of their cars, let our teams do what they have to do to keep people safe. >> use common sense. mayor cory booker, thank you very much for calling in. good luck to you in riding this thing out. want to stay with -- want to go to man here. we've been telling you this story of this partial crane collapse at west 57th between 6th and 7th streets. this is a live picture. chad myers on my right, ashleigh banfield in lower manhattan. let's bring ashleigh up. as we're looking at this picture of this collapsed crane, how bad are the wind gusts right now where you are? as people jog by you, again. >> reporter: i know. it's crazy. we're getting about 45-mile-an-hour gusts right now. all i can tell you is

[ inaudible ]. >> ashleigh banfield, can i get you to do me a favor and put that microphone closer to your mouth? i want to hear you. >> reporter: this wind is so strong. i can't believe people are out here jogging. especially where i'm standing is in an evacuation zone. we're fine, but all of the buildings that are around me, 400,000 people have evacuated inside boroughs. why people are out is beyond comprehensi comprehension. 1.1 million school kids are hunkered down somewhere and riding out this storm with their parents because there is nothing open at this point. take a look at this water here. i'm probably 8 feet to ten feet up, okay? they're expecting in a worst-case scenario -- >> ashleigh, i'm going to pull away.

i apologize. i'm having tough time hearing you. that is your point, the wind is that bad. i want to stay in man and go to deborah feyerick. ashleigh is talking about people hunker down, but the thing in new york, not everyone is heeding those warnings to stay put. >> reporter: you know, and there's a very good reason for that, and i'll tell you why. there are times where it just feels like a small drizzle is affecting you. but then at other times a huge gust of wind will come and it's overwhelming, overpowering. we have a crane we're looking at, and everybody is nervous. every time one of those strong gusts of wind come our way, everybody is kind of looking up. what you have to be careful about are the tree branches, things flying off of the roofs. the hudson river, it's still very powerful. we see a couple of boats that are in the water. they're sort of making their way up. but they look like they're being anchored down. that's how slowly their progress

is. i spoke to somebody out on long island. situation there, very, very different. that's what we're seeing with this storm. right now, very calm. in other pars, no. places that usually flood, they're getting hit. spoke to somebody in long island, they're already in flood conditions. for the most part here in manhattan, people are kind of used to this. you look over here, brooke, this is considered an evacuation zone. one block over, however, it's not. we see boards and sand, people are riding it out. we spoke to a couple people earlier today. take a listen. >> we don't have it. sorry about that. what did they say? >> reporter: what they basically said is one woman came out and said it didn't feel bad. there's going to be a point where people are going to stay indoors. but new york city still has a pulse. people come out. they're not being not smart, let's put it that way, but they're saying it's not too bad,

they're coming out. but a lot of people are home right now. you've got children with the day off from school, the subways are closed so nobody's getting anywhere. the buses aren't running. the brooklyn battery tunnel. you can't get to jersey that way or that way. >> that's right. those tunnels are closed as of about an hour and 20 minutes ago. deborah feyerick, we'll come back to you. we appreciate you there in manhattan. incredible how different one picture was in manhattan from another, isn't it. we are also keeping our eye on that crane. a lot of you are tweeting me. we eep keel a close eye on it. we also want to go to delaware. we have you covered here on cnn from north carolina to maine. members of congress. r., in celebration of over 75 years of our government employees insurance company, or geico...as most of you know it. ...i propose savings for everyone!

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this is chesapeake bay across from annapolis. this video coming to us about an hour or two ago. kent island, maryland, closer to

landfall with hurricane sandy. about 90 minutes ago the president declared a state of emergency in delaware. and all along delaware's coast, flooding has started in earnest this morning. brian todd is there for us. he is in rehoboth beach, delaware. brian, how are conditions where you are? >> reporter: not too good, brooke. right now it's a driving rain. it's been like this all day. the rain keeps switching directions because the wind keeps switching directions. that's a hurricane. right now i'm on the boardwalk at rehoboth beach, delaware, officials worried about how this boardwalk will hold up. as i walk past the gazebo and walk toward the surf, the surf and the beach erosion are what they're worried about as it relates to the boardwalk and the hotels and businesses along here. just a short time ago when it was high tide, this surf was pretty hellacious. it was coming up right about where i'm standing and washing completely past the dunes here and up toward the boardwalk. there's a lot of sand on the

boardwalk. what they're worried about is beach erosion. earlier this year they expanded this beach. they reconstructed part of it with the army corps of engineers. they built it out about 300 feet toward the ocean. and they said if they hadn't done that right now, this boardwalk might be pretty much shot, because 20 years ago a nor'easter came and pretty much splintered this boardwalk apart. they're worried about it because of course this boardwalk is big for tourism here and summer visitation. and they are very concerned about whether it will hold up. they said if they hadn't expanded this earlier this year, then this could be pretty much torn apart right now. but they are worried about it because the storm surge is going to return. we had a high tide here a short time ago and the waves were much higher, surf was much closer in. it's going to come back in a few hours. brooke, that's what they're worried about here. inland flooding a big concern if you get another gust of wind coming toward me right now. inland flooding not far from here in lieu wis beach, delaware.ewis beach, delaware.

mandatory evacuations were ordered for this area. everyone within a three-quarter of a mile radius from the shore inland ordered to get out. they're not sure how many people did get out. but the city manager here told me he thinks most of the people who live here year round did because they know the storm surge in a storm like this. >> brian todd, thank you. he mentioned inland flooding. according to our folks in the weather center, that is the number-one killer, inland flooding in these systems. this hurricane is clipping along. last check, 28 miles per hour. setting this low-pressure record. it's slowly gaining power. but much of this crucial information comes directly from these people who fly. >>-in these hurricanes. they're the hurricane hunters, the men and women who go straight into the middle of these storms. on the phone with me now a noaa flight meteorologist ian sears.

in talking to a lot of people about this hurricane, the biggest fear is some of the potential record breaking storm surges. do you agree? >> absolutely. storm surge is a big concern and inland flooding is also a big concern. we picked the storm up in the bahamas and started flying missions around the clock on friday. what we were seeing is kind of a disorganized storm that started to grow in size as it came up the east coast of the united states there. and we were making sure that we're getting all the information to the national hurricane center, the modeling center, the emergency managers, so that they can use that information to warn the folks that are in the path of those hazards that you ear talking about like inland flooding and storm surge. >> it's chad myers. i want to talk about the flight you had last night and how you watched the storm intensify over the gulf stream. when you're flying these migs,

you also fly away from the eye to see how big the wind field is. nassau county, suffolk county up in long island, 81-mile-per-hour gusts, hundreds of miles from the center. have you seen a storm with the wind field ever this large? >> in my experience flying hurricanes, this is the biggest hurricane that i've seen. we would fly 150, 200 miles away from the center of the storm and we were still picking up tropical storm-force winds last night. >> and how long have you been doing this, ian? >> this is my fourth season. >> okay. ian sears. >> a very impressive storm. we are watching this storm deepen yesterday. did you ever get to see an eye last night when you were there or did you leave before it occurred? >> we picked up the eye. we were the first flight in that started seeing the eye form after we started seeing it on satellite. it was really impressive. we starred seeing it from about 150 nautical miles, 200 nautical

miles out on the radar. we saw the convection burst on the north side of the storm. it was a very impressive sight to see on radar and being that far north. as you were mentioning, starting to interact with the gulf stream there a little bit. maybe giving it a little bit of extra energy to intensify last night. >> in the middle of this hurricane he flew. ian sears, thank you for jumping on the phone as we continue to cover here. again, expected landfall of this hurricane sometime between 8:00 and 2:00 in the morning eastern time. >> i got an update. >> go for it. >> it's going to make landfall within three hours. >> within three hours. this landfall from this hurricane. we apparently have a reporter standing by near this crane. this is west 57th between 6th and 7th avenues in manhattan. because of the wind. h 8 airbags, a crash management system and the world's only tridion safety cell which can withstand over three and a half tons.

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we are three hours away from landfall of this hurricane. you are looking at live pictures once again. this is manhattan. this is perhaps just foreshadowing of more damage that we could be seeing over the course of the next 24 or so hours. this is west 57th street between 6th and 7th avenues. the structure on the right-hand side of this residence, which by the way will be the largest in all of manhattan, is clearly dangling. this is because of the wind. we're working on getting a reporter on the street who is standing very near that and we'll talk to her or him about that. in the meantime, chad myers, give me an update as far as where the storm stands. >> many trees down in massachusetts already, getting reports in rhode island as well. water flooding into long island sound will eventually flood manhattan. i'm sure that's going to go over the break walls there into battery park for sure. many even saying it could be very close to getting in the subway. the center of the eye right there, not that far away. we'll call it the center there. this would be new jersey. here's cape may.

here's where the ferry comes through. it's going to be coming onshore southern new jersey with the worst part of this storm in the megalopolis right through here. you have to understand, the wind will be significant, too, right through here. that's wilmington, philadelphia. that's baltimore. there's the nation's capital right there. you're already feeling big gusts every time the storm comes by. but in probably ten hours for you, d.c., eight for bawl, six for philadelphia, that's when your maximum wind gusts will probably be 80 miles per hour, maybe higher in some spots, gusts higher, maybe to 100. lots of trees down, millions if not higher, tens of millions, not sure yet, without power by the end of i'd say tomorrow night. >> okay. chad, done go too far. we'll come back to you. i want to bring in this guest to my right who i have the pleasure of sitting next to here. general russel honore. you commanded the military in new orleans post katrina. you know a thing or two about emergency preparedness and destruction on the scale which we will likely sk lly see.

welcome. before we talked a preparedness and the president's point of how they've been working so hard to preposition resources, let me begin with the story off the coast of north carolina. this massive ship. there were 16 people on board. it began to sink. there was a distress call, and the next thing they know the coast guard ends up getting called in to try to rescue. here are the pictures from atop this coast guard helicopter. tell me what you know. what do you make of this? >> this is what the coast guard does that nobody else can do other than some of your active duty military. go out and save mariners. it's a part of the national mission. nobody does it better. thank god for the coast guard to get out there this morning and stave majority of the people. the story is not over with. how that ship ended up in the location it was in, but they were able to get some of them out there. hopefully this story will end better than what it is now. but coast guard did a fantastic job. much of that through advanced technology, brooke.

we couldn't do this 60 years ago. >> because of that, that we have now 14 people who are a-okay, two people still missing so we're keeping in close contact with a reporter who's been following this story. talking about the military and all that they can do, how crucial, walk me through what these different sort of groups and jurisdictions are doing in anticipation of the landfall. >> let me say this to start off with. this has been the philosophy, all disasters are local. as we speak, the local first responders are working their response plan. up to this time we've been doing a lot of what we call risk communications, advising people, taking actions to move people without rides, people in vulnerable situations, risk preparedness and evacuation. we've been dealing with strategy and tactics. this time tomorrow we'll be dealing with the hard part -- lo gist -- logistics.

amateurs spend a lot of time on tactics but real pros deal with logistics. we'll see who was really prepared from the element side at the local, state, and federal partners tomorrow when we start reacting. i think there are going to be closer to 15 million to 20 million people without power. i think we really underestimated the impact of that. but that will be a logistics operation. it will have impact on people, infrastructure, phones in hospitals. and i disagree with what one of the previous politicians said. most people who will be rescued tomorrow morning will be rescued by neighbors, not by police. there aren't enough police and first responders to go around. i would strongly suggest they go back and relook at that because when the power is out tomorrow morning and the eye of the storm has moved off and we have power down and people need help, it will be neighbors helping neighbors who will save most of the lives. >> as you have the neighbors,

general honore, thank you. this is hours before this thing makes landfall and we're already seeing streets that look like canals, and in these canals along the sides you have homes, and there is a home, no this picture, but another picture there was a house fire already. this is just the beginning. this is the beginning of the wrath that is sandy. that's next. the wheels of progress haven't been very active lately.

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we'll get you back to that crane collapse in just a moment. i want to go to long island to jim gallagher, the fire chief in linden hur en lindenhurst, new york. jim gallagher, explain what it looks like where you are because i've seen a heck of a lot of watter and a house fire. yes? >> yes. basically, part of our water area is flooded in. we have 2 or 3 feet of water there. earlier this morning we had a

house fire that we had to fight, about 2 or 3 feet of water we had to go into to get to this house. >> can you tell me how the house caught fire? >> we didn't really investigate that part right now. my guess is probably the electrical, because it was underneath the water and the electrical probably shorted out. >> how much of this do you anticipate over the next couple days certainly with all this water, issues with utility, issues with electricity? is this just the beginning of a long couple of days, sir? >> yes. it's going to be a long couple days with this. definitely we're having power outages in -- minor pounl minor outages right now, but as the storm gets bigger there will be more, especially through the night. >> jim gallagher, we'll be touch with you. i know water rescues under way in your neck of the woods. we'll go back to the crane collapse. we have someone who can talk about this. this crane is dangling above

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this partially collapsed crane in manhattan. we've been watching it. i know so many of you have been tweeting me about this. many are fearful if it could, in fact, break as we await this storm to hit the east coast. hln's ryan smith is nearby on the streets in manhattan. i understand you talked to the building manager. what do we know about this crane right now? >> reporter: brooke, i didn't talk to the building manager. i talked to the manager of a restaurant that's directly across the street. construction has been going on for a while. called police earlier today to say that the crane had been shifting back and forth. the police showed up a couple hours later when you first saw that crane shifting. i was walking down the street and happened to walk right under it, took a picture as i saw it

moving, and then police and fire department rolled up at that moment and started clearing the street. i talked to a police officer who was about 20 feet away from the crane who said glass had started to pluck off the building, as well. so they're trying to block off as many blocks as they can, but they're having trouble, brooke, because the big thing is the wind keeps shifting directions and they can't predict where that crane might go if, in fact, it does start to tip. >> so for now the situation is -- it wouldn't at least land on something. is that correct? >> reporter: something, you can't be sure because it's such a densely -- it's a heavily commercial area. >> what's down there? >> reporter: it could fall on someone because they've cleared everybody off the street. and so they first started, like, clearing off the path directly across from it, and now i'm seeing that they've cleared off a block or two at least in our

direction going west. and it looks like they're starting to clear off the direction going south. but typically, when construction starts to tip it as this incident happens sometimes in midtown manhattan, they know to clear off one area, but the wind is the problem so they're having to clear as much as they can. >> ryan, back to a question about the glass. are you saying in addition to the crane situation, this building, this 157 building, there was glass flying off? >> reporter: the police officer who pulled me off of the street -- i was going to walk into another building to take shelter -- a police officer told me you don't want to go in there because glass has been flying in the area. so that was when she told me -- in telling me to try to get off the street and get back as far as i can. >> okay. ryan smith, thank you for calling in. if you know manhattan, there are a lot of buildings under construction here and there are many a crane. so that certainly is one concern here as we are within that three-hour window before this

hurricane makes landfall. before we go to break, let me let you know we will take you back to ali velshi's live shot. here he is in the middle of a desolate atlantic city. ali, a quick break. we'll check in with you and the wind and the rain after this. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] don't just reject convention. drown it out. introducing the all-new 2013 lexus ls f sport. an entirely new pursuit.

roughly two hours now, roughly two hours of landfall from hurricane sandy. we've taken you up and down the eastern seaboard painting a picture of what's happening right now. you're looking at ali velshi in a very desolate atlantic city, new jersey, intersection. ali velshi, if you can hear me, tell me how strong -- how much has the wind picked up? >> reporter: brooke, i can hear you. i don't know if you can hear me very well. the wind's picked up dramatically since the last time we talked. i heard chad saying it was about 90 miles an hour gusting the last time, substantially stronger than that. if i were to guess, i would say we're closing in on 100 miles an hour. you'll feel the gusts going through. you can look down while there's relative calm to the end of the street there. that would be the ocean. that's the atlantic ocean over there.

waves are much bigger around there. i will tell you, a number of people have said, why are you doing this? it seems unsafe. we are surrounded by buildings which as chad will tell you will sometimes exacerbate the wind situation. but we are sheltered from debris right now. we're about seven feet above sea level right now. we're expecting the storm surge in atlantic city to be about 9 1/2 feet, probably going to see a vehicle drive right between us. those tend to be emergency vehicles or utility vehicles. he's going to do a little three-point turn right here. they're around checking to make sure nobody is roaming the streets. at 6:00 p.m., atlantic city goes into a full curfew. 400 to 500 people in the county are in shelters. we know there's a travel ban. and if you haven't left, you're not getting out of here because the roads are generally

overwashed. we're going back to high dry in atlantic city. but for the most, it's empty and the winds are picking up. >> incredibly dangerous. it's incredibly dangerous where you are. i'm glad you point out that you are surrounded by buildings. you also point out you are two hours away from that mandatory curfew that's been put in place for folks in atlantic city. did you get a chance for the people who did not heed the warnings, who will be sheltering in place, how nervous are they? >> reporter: well, you know, the good thing is, these governors in the northeast, chris christie here and the gvrps in pennsylvania and new york and maryland, virginia, west virginia, massachusetts, everybody's taking this very seriously, as is the president, national guard is actually just here not too far from us. everybody's been very clear on what you're supposed to do. most of these cities wanted people out of here by yesterday evening. they shut down all -- >> careful.

>> reporter: if you weren't out, you're not getting out. letting some cars pass the road. >> we're going to pull away from you, ali. i want you to hunker down on the side. we're going to pull away for just a moment. i want to go to maggie lake who's in asbury park. maggie, tell me about the conditions where you are. >> reporter: brooke, we're also seeking shelter right behind a wall right here to protect from the wind while we wait. but if i step out, the conditions certainly have worsened since we last talked. if you look behind me, you can see the ocean now starting to come up to the boardwalk. the seafoam now up on the boardwalk. and we are still a ways from high tide. the ocean waves are about ten feet high coming straight toward the boardwalk. we are not experiencing the coasting flooding in atlantic city. i have family and relative there is. i was just speaking to a fireman there. but the people here are very

much concerned we will see a similar situation, the tide and the ocean coming up over the boardwalk into the lying areas. right now, we have horizontal rain and wind and sand. this is the other problem with these coastal communities f. you look at the boardwalk, we have a big layer of sand coming up as the wind blows. the beach erosion is going to be tremendous here. but it is the property damage, the flooding and also the power outages. we already know -- we just spoke to the public officer from the fire department here who told us they've already started to get calls about downed limbs. not too many yet and most of this area still has power for the moment. but they are anticipating problems. many people have left. but many still have stayed. they're concerned -- they want them to stay inside. we have seen a few curiosity seekers. but the conditions are getting bad enough now that most people have taken refuge inside. we are still a few hours away from the storm making landfall. people feel like it's a hurricane already.

but it's going to get a lot worse from her here. >> this is just the beginning as we are just about within that two-hour window before it makes landfall. maggie lake, thank you. we're going to take you back to that crane collapse here in just a moment. jack, you're a little boring.

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to switch, and you could save hundreds. liberty mutual insurance -- responsibility. what's your policy? back to this breaking news. back to this picture of this crane collapsed. it is dangling alongside this building. it's one57, this is west 57th between sixth and seventh avenues. talking to ryan smith who was down on the ground. what he could tell us is there's fire, police emerging on the scene trying to block off some of the areas down below. but the problem clearly is the wind. this late in the game, you can't dismantle this. >> no. nobody's going up there. absolutely not. the highest wind gust was 66 miles per hour at jfk. it's going to go higher than that. >> this is an 80-story building.